The human cost of facebook's disregard for muslim life
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the human cost of facebook’s disregard for muslim life
Published October 21, 2020 A joint publication of Muslim Advocates and the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE). Muslim Advocates is a national civil rights organization working in the courts, in the halls of power and in communities to halt bigotry in its tracks. We ensure that American Muslims have a seat at the table with expert representation so that all Americans may live free from hate and discrimination. More information on Muslim Advocates is available at www.muslimadvocates.org. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) uses research, advocacy, and education to counter the rising tide of extremism across borders by: documenting and exposing how extremist and hateful movements use social media and the internet to organize, propagandize, and recruit followers and sympathizers; educating anti-hate actors, policymakers, and the public about extremist movements, their leadership, and their activities; and examining how extremist movements influence each other across borders, specifically analyzing the impact of American extremists on other countries. More information on GPAHE is available at www.globalextremism.org. © All rights reserved.
table of 1
5
Executive Summary
Recommendations
contents 6
13
Introduction
Country Summaries
14 China
16 Germany
18 Hungary
19 India
25 Myanmar
29 New Zealand
31 Sri Lanka
33 Sweden
34 United States
38 Conclusion
39 Appendix
Executive Summary
In 2015, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed to make his I can only imagine
social media platform a welcoming home for Muslims after
members of the community faced a brutal backlash in the wake the fear Muslims
of horrific, violent attacks in Paris. One 17-year-old in France
reported, “There was a flood of violent language on Facebook
feel that they will be
to kill Muslims.”1 Zuckerberg posted on Facebook, “After the persecuted for the
Paris attacks and hate this week, I can only imagine the fear
Muslims feel that they will be persecuted for the actions of actions of others.
others. As the leader of Facebook... we will fight to protect your As the leader of
rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you.”2
Citing the lessons of his Jewish background, Zuckerberg wrote Facebook... we will
that he wanted to add his voice in support of Muslims “in our fight to protect your
community and around the world.”
rights and create a
It’s hard now to imagine more hollow words being spoken.
Since Zuckerberg made that commitment, Facebook has been
peaceful and safe
used to orchestrate the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar,3 mass environment for you.
murders of Muslims in India,4 and riots and murders in Sri Lanka
that targeted Muslims for death.5 Anti-Muslim hate groups and Mark Zuckerberg
hate speech run rampant on Facebook with anti-Muslim posts, Facebook CEO
ads, private groups, and other content.6 Armed, anti-Muslim
protests in the U.S. have been coordinated from Facebook event
pages.7 The Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque massacres
were live-streamed on the site and the videos shared by untold
numbers worldwide.8
1 Adam Nossiter and Liz Alderman, “After Paris Attacks, a Darker Mood
Toward Islam Emerges in France,” The New York Times, Nov. 16, 2015.
2 Mark Zuckerberg, “I want to add my voice in support of Muslims in our
community and around the world,” Facebook, Dec. 9, 2015.
3 Paul Mozur, “A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts from Myanmar’s
Military,” The New York Times, Oct. 15, 2018.
4 Naveed Siddiqui, “3 killed, 100 others arrested in India after violence
erupts over anti-Islam Facebook post,” Dawn, Aug. 13, 2020.
5 Tasmin Nazeer, “Facebook’s Apology for its Role in Sri Lanka’s Anti-Muslim
Riots Should Spark Change,” The Diplomat, May 15, 2020.
6 Mehdi Hasan, “Dear Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Is an Engine of Anti-Mus-
lim Hate the World Over. Don’t You Care?” The Intercept, Dec. 7, 2019.
7 Claire Allbright, “A Russian Facebook page organized a protest in Texas. A
different Russian page launched the counterprotest,” The Texas Tribune, Nov.
1, 2017.
8 Emanuel Stoakes, “New Zealand mosque attack victims confront gunman
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in charge of a platform
in courtroom,” The Washington Post, Aug. 24, 2020; Andrew Liptak, that has become the global engine of anti-Muslim bigotry.
“Facebook Says It Removed 1.5 million Videos of the New Zealand Mass Photo: Alessio Jacona
Shooting,” The Verge, March 17, 2019.
complicit 1
Hate groups like Secure America Now use
Facebook to demonize Muslims as invaders
who are undermining democratic values,
institutions, even monuments. Facebook Video
This report details Facebook’s damaging impact on Muslim
communities in nine countries and demonstrates how Facebook
has willfully ignored the dangers posed by anti-Muslim content The company
to the welfare of Muslims across the globe. Facebook’s own
civil rights audit, completed in 20209 after a nearly two-year falsely equated
process that came only after sustained pressure from human the protection of
rights groups, singled out anti-Muslim hate on the platform as
a longstanding problem.10 The auditors wrote, “the organization their users' safety,
of events designed to intimidate members of the Muslim civil rights, and
community at gathering places, to the prevalence of content
demonizing Islam and Muslims, and the use of Facebook Live human rights
during the Christchurch massacre,” created an atmosphere
where “Muslims feel under siege on Facebook.”
with satisfying
partisan political
Despite this damning finding, Facebook has yet to address the
anti-Muslim problems found by its own audit or those identified interests.
by advocates around the world in the preceding years. The
company’s actions, or lack thereof, indicate that its decision to
engage in the audit was not necessarily out of concern for lives lost because of its inaction, but rather
for political expediency. Incredibly, the same day that the civil rights audit was announced in May 2018,
the company also announced that one of the United States Senate’s most notorious anti-Muslim and
anti-immigrant members, former Senator Jon Kyl, would conduct his own audit into anti-conservative
bias on the platform. Kyl has a history of demonizing Muslims and working with anti-Muslim hate
groups.11 This is illustrative of Facebook’s penchant to fail to simply do what’s right and what they’ve
promised; instead, the company falsely equated the protection of their users’ safety, civil rights, and
human rights with satisfying partisan political interests. Investigating human and civil rights abuses and
global anti-Muslim hate content that leads to the loss of life should not have been presented as needing
to be balanced with an investigation of alleged anti-conservative bias.
9 Facebook, Facebook Civil Rights Audit–Final Report, July 8, 2020.
10 Muslim Advocates, “Civil Rights Groups Urge Facebook to Address Longstanding Issues with Hate Speech and Bigotry,”
Press Release, Oct. 31, 2017.
11 Bridge Initiative Team, Georgetown University, “Factsheet: Jon Kyl,” Sept 27, 2018; Brett Barrouquere, “To Replace John
McCain Arizona Governor Picks Politician with a History of Anti-Muslim Rhetoric, Jon Kyl,” Southern Poverty Law Center’s
Hatewatch, Sept. 4, 2018.
complicit 2
For years, civil rights organizations and policymakers have raised
concerns both privately and publicly, begging the company
to take action. It has not. Out of desperation to be heard,
many organized boycotts,12 called for the board and company
leadership to be replaced,13 and asked governments to step in.14
Still, Facebook’s strategy was to wait and do almost nothing.
Facebook’s actions are not dissimilar to IBM’s support of Germany’s For years,
Nazi Party, where it allowed its technology to be used by Hitler’s
regime to enact its genocidal policies in exchange for profits.15 civil rights
Facebook has done the same in places like India and Myanmar, organizations
enabling mass violence by anti-Muslim regimes and individual
actors in an attempt to grow or monopolize Internet markets. and policymakers
have raised
Outside of the U.S., where vulnerable communities have fewer
options for recourse, the picture is even bleaker. In a most
concerns both
horrifying case, Facebook was cited by the U.N. for playing a privately and
“determining” role in the genocide perpetrated against the
Muslim Rohingya community in Myanmar.16 And in India, the publicly, begging
Delhi State Assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee just the company to
recently found that Facebook was complicit in the Delhi riots of
February 2020, and should be investigated for every riot since take action.
2014.17 Evidence shows that Facebook has at times seemingly It has not.
collaborated with anti-Muslim regimes, such as the current
ruling party in India, to protect hate speech by its leadership in
contravention of its own anti-hate policies.18
Facebook’s leadership has said repeatedly that the company’s
policies against hate apply to everyone regardless of who they are
or where they are, and yet the company continues to allow anti-
Muslim material to stay on the platform,19 using a variety of excuses
12 Queenie Wong, “Facebook Ad Boycott: Why Brands ‘Hit Pause on Hate,’”
CNET, July 30, 2020.
13 Muslim Advocates, “32 Civil Rights Groups Lose Faith in Facebook, Call for
Significant Reforms to its Board,” Press Release, Dec. 17, 2018.
14 Stephanie Bodoni and Natalia Drozdiak, “EU Says It Can Force Facebook to
Pull Posts With Hate Speech Anywhere in the World,” Fortune, Oct. 3, 2019.
15 Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between
Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation (New York: Crown
Books, 2001).
16 Eli Meixler, “U.N. Fact Finders Say Facebook Played a ‘Determining’ Role
in Violence Against the Rohingya,” Time, March 13, 2018.
17 Aditya Chunduru, “Key Takeaways from Peace & Harmony Committee
Meeting,” Medianama, Sept. 1, 2020.
18 Al Jazeera, “Facebook ignored hate speech by India’s BJP politicians:
Fatema, 35, who is seven months pregnant, fled the
Report,” Al Jazeera, Aug. 15, 2020. genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar that
19 Deepa Seetharaman, “Facebook Employees Pushed to Remove Trump’s was fueled by online hate. Photo: Anna Dubuis/DFID
Posts as Hate Speech,” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 2016.
complicit 3
including “newsworthiness.”20 For example, Facebook has said that
exceptions to its hate speech policy are sometimes made if content
is “newsworthy, significant or important to the public interest.”21
At the same time, the company contends that hate speech does not
help its bottom line.22 If so, why has Facebook repeatedly chosen
to leave up dangerous hate content, often generated by public
figures with large audiences, such as President Donald Trump?23 The company
Another case in point is India, where Facebook now has its largest continues to
user base24 and is investing in expansion and growth to dominate
that very large market.25 The company is working closely with the allow anti-Muslim
current Indian government,26 in particular Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, who was himself allegedly involved with stoking anti-Muslim
material to stay
violence when he was governor of the Indian state of Gujarat that on the platform,
led to the deaths of 1,000 Muslims.27 There appears to be a clear
financial incentive to pander to Modi, who has one of the largest using a variety of
number of followers of any political leader on Facebook,28 and his excuses including
political party. It is, of course, hate speech by such figures that is the
most dangerous because of their reach and influence.29 “newsworthiness".."
Facebook is seeding and cultivating anti-Muslim bigotry amongst
its users, leading to real world violence against the 270 million
Muslims living in the nine countries covered in this report.30
Facebook is indisputably the world's engine for anti-Muslim
violence. The time for discussion of this issue is over. Facebook
must act now and end anti-Muslim hate on its platform, no matter
who or what entity, is proliferating it.
20 David Gilbert, “Facebook is Giving a Free Pass on Hate Speech,” Vice
News, Sept. 25, 2019.
21 Kate Cox, “Facebook Confirms Its ‘Standards’ Don’t Apply to Politicians,”
Ars Technica, Sept. 25, 2019.
22 Nick Clegg, “Facebook Does Not Benefit from Hate,“ Facebook, July 1, 2020.
23 Ian Bremmer, “Zuckerberg won’t censor Trump’s anti-Muslim ‘hate post’
on Facebook: Report,” Hindustan Times, Oct. 22, 2016.
24 Jeff Joseph Paul Kadicheenie, “How India Became Facebook’s Biggest
Market,” The Hoot, Aug. 16, 2017.
25 Ravi Agrawal, “Why Facebook Is Betting Big on India,” Foreign Policy, Apr.
23, 2020.
26 Billy Perrigo, “Facebook’s Ties to India’s Ruling Party Complicate Its Fight
Against Hate Speech,” Time, Aug. 27, 2020.
27 Sanjoy Majumder, “Narendra Modi ‘allowed’ Gujarat 2002 anti-Muslim
riots,” BBC News, Apr. 22, 2011.
28 Surabhi Agarwal, “With 41.7 million followers, Modi becomes most
followed world leader on Facebook,” The Economic Times, May 27, 2017.
29 Dangerous Speech Project, “Dangerous Speech: A Practical Guide,” Aug. 4, 2020.
30 This is a rough estimate based on Facebook penetration in a country and
Syrian refugees arrive in Germany amidst growing
the share of the population in that country that is Muslim. There is no data anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment that is
available on how many Muslim users of Facebook exist in the countries where amplified through social media.
the company operates, so these numbers are tentative. Population numbers Foto: Jazzmany
derived primarily from World Bank and UN data.
complicit 4Recommendations
To bring an end to anti-Muslim hate on Facebook,
we recommend the company immediately:
• Rigorously, and without regard to political or economic implications, enforce Facebook’s
community standards and Dangerous Individuals and Organizations designations worldwide
to address anti-Muslim hate.
• Ban the use of event pages for the purpose of harassment, organizing, and violence targeting
the Muslim community.
• Create a senior staff working group responsible for the reduction of hate speech on the platform,
and require regular updates through Facebook’s Transparency Report on the company’s progress
in removing offending content, including anti-Muslim hate content.
complicit 5Introduction
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2015 promise to make his
platform a welcoming home for Muslims has proven to be an
illusion. In country after country, the Facebook platform has
been used as a driver for anti-Muslim violence,31 the result
of the company repeatedly and willfully ignoring the dangers
of anti-Muslim content. None of this has happened without
Facebook’s knowledge32 or without public outcry from its users,
civil and human rights groups,33 and lawmakers.34 Facebook is
simply looking the other way while its platform becomes the
global engine of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Many people may not be aware that Facebook’s actions have led
to incredible levels of anti-Muslim violence in multiple countries,
and that even when warned that material posted to the platform
was likely to end in violence, the company repeatedly chose not
to act. Unfortunately, decisions to ignore its own community
standards that should protect Muslim communities have been
influenced instead by anti-Muslim ruling governments,35 militias,36
and political influencers, the very people who can reach and
influence the largest audiences.
In 2020, dehumanizing content about Muslims remains widespread
on Facebook. A recent analysis showed that the United States and
Australia “lead in the number of active Facebook pages and groups
dedicated to referring this dehumanizing [anti-Muslim] content.”37
31 Mehdi Hasan, “Dear Mark Zuckerberg.”
32 Ariana Tobin, “Civil Rights Groups Have Been Warning Facebook About
Hate Speech In Secret Groups For Years,” ProPublica, July 2, 2019.
33 Rishi Iyengar and Donnie O’Sullivan, “Civil rights groups invited to
Zuckerberg’s home slam Facebook’s ‘lackluster response,’” CNN, Dec. 4, 2019.
34 Taylor Hatmaker, “With Advertiser Boycott Growing, Lawmakers Press
Facebook on White Supremacy,” Techcrunch, June 30, 2020.
35 Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shaikh Azizur Rahman, “Facebook Faces
Grilling by MPs in India Over Anti-Muslim Hate Speech,” The Guardian, Sept.
1, 2020.
36 Tyler Sonnemaker, “Facebook ‘did nothing’ about violent militia and hate
groups for 5 years despite being warned at least 10 times, advocacy group
Refugees are forced to leave Hungary
says,” Business Insider, Sept. 18, 2020. amidst growing anti-Muslim hate that
37 Rita Jabri-Markwell, ”The online dehumanisation of Muslims made the proliferates online. Photo: Bence Jardany
Christchurch massacre possible,” ABC, Aug. 31, 2020.
complicit 6This content is significantly driven by the white supremacist hate speech and hate groups that thrive
on Facebook and routinely demonize Muslims. In May 2020, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP)
found more than 100 U.S. white supremacist groups were active on Facebook, on their own group
pages as well as on auto-generated content.38 Among the many vulnerable communities attacked
by these groups, Muslims were demonized by circulating footage and making comments about the
Christchurch mosque shootings. In the wake of TTP’s report, Facebook did alter some of the auto-
generated content and groups, but many remained on the platform.39
Anti-Muslim hate on Facebook is well-documented
The problem with anti-Muslim hate on Facebook has been documented for some years. Two years
ago, computer scientist Megan Squire did an analysis of right-wing extremist groups on Facebook
and found an incredible overlap with anti-Muslim hate.40 Squire found that anti-Muslim attitudes
are not only flourishing on the platform but also acting as a “common denominator” for a range of
other extremist ideologies, including anti-immigrant groups, pro-Confederate groups, militant anti-
government conspiracy theorists, and white nationalists. Among thousands of Facebook users who
were members of multiple extremist Facebook groups, Squire found that 61 percent of “multi-issue”
users who were in anti-immigrant groups had also joined anti-Muslim groups; the same was true
for 44 percent of anti-government groups, 37 percent of white nationalist groups, and 35 percent of
neo-Confederate groups. “Anti-Muslim groups are way worse, in every way, than what I would have
guessed coming in,” Squire said at the time, “Some of the anti-Muslim groups are central players in
the hate network as a whole. And the anti-Muslim groups show more membership crossover with
other ideologies than I expected.”41
Protestors take
to the street after
President Trump
implements the
Muslim ban.
Facebook refused
to remove his
posts about the
ban even though
they violated the
company policies.
Photo: Stephen
Melkisethian
38 Tech Transparency Project, “White Supremacist Groups Are Thriving on Facebook,” May 21, 2020.
39 Tech Transparency Project, “White Supremacist Groups.”
40 Ishmael N. Daro, “Here’s How Anti-Muslim Groups On Facebook Overlap With A Range Of Far-Right Extremism,”
BuzzFeed, Aug. 4, 2018.
41 Ishmael N. Daro, “Here’s How.”
complicit 7Civil rights organizations have repeatedly warned Facebook that
anti-Muslim posts, ads, private groups, and other content are
rampant on a global scale.42 As early as 2015, Muslim Advocates
informed Facebook that its event pages were being used to
organize activities by anti-Muslim militias and hate groups,
including armed anti-Muslim protests in the U.S.43 The Southern
Poverty Law Center also reached out to Facebook privately
starting in 2014 to warn the company about hate groups on its
platform, including dozens of anti-Muslim hate groups.44
The organization
Civil rights audit of events
In perhaps the only significant step made by Facebook at the designed to
behest of civil rights organizations, in 2018 the company agreed intimidate
to an independent civil rights audit, which was finalized in
July 2020.45 Though primarily focused on domestic civil rights members of
issues, Facebook’s auditors singled out anti-Muslim hate on the Muslim
the platform as a longstanding problem. They wrote, “the
organization of events designed to intimidate members of the community
Muslim community at gathering places, to the prevalence of created an
content demonizing Islam and Muslims, and the use of Facebook
Live during the Christchurch massacre” created an atmosphere atmosphere
where “Muslims feel under siege on Facebook.”46 Facebook has where Muslims
yet to address any of the longstanding anti-Muslim problems on
its platform which have been raised for years by civil and human feel under siege
rights groups and confirmed and validated by their own audit. on Facebook.
The company’s actions indicate that its decision to engage in the
audit at all was not out of concern for lives lost because of its Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit
inaction, but for political expediency. Final Report
42 Jason Schwartz, “Civil rights groups slam Facebook,” Politico, Oct. 31, 2017.
43 Tyler Sonnemaker, “Facebook ‘did nothing.’”
44 Information from Heidi Beirich, who was director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project from 2010-
2019 and engaged in several discussions with Facebook staff over hate groups on the platform.
45 John Fingas, “Facebook will conduct civil rights audit following bias allegations,” Engadget, May 2, 2018.
46 Facebook, Facebook Civil Rights Audit.
complicit 8In 2019, an Australian
white supremacist
massacred 51 Muslims
in Christchurch,
New Zealand,
while streaming it
on Facebook Live.
Photo: Guillaume Garin
The problem is international in scope
Outside of the U.S., the picture is even bleaker. Tragically, there are many other cases where the
hatred and poison against Muslims originating on Facebook has turned lethal, leading to riots,
deaths, and mass killings. Evidence shows that Facebook has at times seemingly collaborated with
anti-Muslim regimes, such as the current ruling party of India, to protect hate speech by its leadership
in contravention of its own anti-hate policies.47
Facebook was cited by the U.N. for playing a “determining” role in the genocide perpetrated against
the Muslim Rohingya community in Myanmar that began in 2016.48 In September 2018, Facebook
COO Sheryl Sandberg admitted in a Senate committee hearing that the company had failed the
Rohingya,49 calling the situation “devastating”50 and even admitting that Facebook may have a legal
obligation to remove accounts that lead to mass violence. Yet, anti-Muslim material remained rife on
the platform. One year later, in March 2019, the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque massacres were
broadcast on Facebook Live and shared countless times worldwide. In September 2020, the Delhi
State Assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee found that Facebook was complicit in the Delhi
riots of February 2020, and should be investigated for every riot since 2014.51
47 Billy Perrigo, “Facebook’s Ties.”
48 Eli Meixler, “U.N. Fact Finders.”
49 BBC Trending, “The country where Facebook posts whipped up hate,” BBC, Sept. 12, 2018.
50 Evelyn Douek, “Facebook’s Role in the Genocide in Myanmar: New Reporting Complicates the Narrative,” Lawfare,
Oct. 22, 2018.
51 Aditya Chunduru, “Key Takeaways.”
complicit 9In the wake of recent disclosures that Facebook allowed anti-Muslim hate speech to run rampant
in India, its own employees have spoken out about this long-term and repeated failure to deal with
anti-Muslim hate content. In an August 2020 open letter addressed to the company’s leadership,
11 employees demanded that the platform denounce “anti-Muslim bigotry” and ensure Facebook’s
policies are applied equally across the platform.52 “It is hard not to feel frustrated and saddened
by the incidents reported. We know we’re not alone in this. Employees across the company are
expressing similar sentiment,” the letter read. “The Muslim community at Facebook would like to
hear from Facebook leadership on our asks.”
The pain from the
Christchurch massacre
reverberated around
the world, leading to
memorials like this
in the United States.
Photo: Charles Edward
Miller
Facebook grows the white supremacist and anti-Muslim movement
By ignoring this issue, Facebook for years allowed the most dangerous white supremacist propaganda
to fester and grow, recruiting untold numbers of people into the ranks of a movement that has inspired
violence and genocide targeting Muslims, immigrants, and Jews. The Christchurch shooter had been
radicalized into Identitarianism,53 spread on multiple Facebook accounts,54 and was an adherent of the
racist Great Replacement theory - an international white supremacist conspiracy movement that promotes
the idea that white people are slowly experiencing a genocide in their own home countries due to a plot
by elites to displace white people with rising numbers of non-white immigrants.55 The Great Replacement
theory argues that immigrants, especially Muslims, are destroying Western countries and turning them
into foreign places. These thinkers often argue disparagingly that Europe is becoming Eurabia.56
52 Regina Mihindukulasuriya, “Denounce ‘anti-Muslim bigotry’ — Facebook staff in US, other countries write to com-
pany,” The Print, Aug. 20, 2020.
53 Hope Not Hate, “What is Identitarianism?” Undated.
54 Mark Townsend, “Infiltrator exposes Generation Identity UK’s march towards extreme far right,” The Guardian, Aug. 24, 2019.
55 Lauretta Charlton, “What is the Great Replacement?” The New York Times, Aug. 6, 2019.
56 Rita Jabri-Markwell, “The Online Dehumanization.”
complicit 10Extremist groups like the Proud Boys used Facebook to organize rallies and spread anti-Muslim hate. Photo: Robert P. Alvarez
The New Zealand shooter was clear about his motive. In his manifesto, Brenton Tarrant wrote that he wanted
to stop the Great Replacement, and he targeted Muslims, including their children, for extermination.57 As
Peter Lentini has written, “Tarrant’s solution to the crisis [posed by a Muslim “invasion”] – indeed one on
which he felt compelled to enact – was to annihilate his enemies (read Muslim immigrants). This included
targeting non-combatants. In one point, he indicates that [immigrants] constitute a much greater threat
to the future of Western societies than terrorists and combatants. Thus, he argues that it is also necessary
to kill children to ensure that the enemy line will not continue.”58
Generation Identity (GI), the sprawling, international organization that pushes the Great Replacement
idea, was rampant on Facebook for years.59 In June 2018, Facebook finally took action against GI, but
only after several members of the Austrian chapter were investigated for potentially running a criminal
organization (the investigation ended without charges). Facebook deplatformed the entire network
citing violations of policy.60 But this was too little, too late. Before being blocked, more than 120,000
people followed Generation Identity on Facebook.61 Facebook is complicit in the worldwide transmission
of Identitarian thinking, which is anti-Muslim at its heart.
Since October 2018, there have been at least six mass attacks motivated by Great Replacement ideology.62
In addition to Christchurch, attacks were staged at two American synagogues, an El Paso Walmart, a
synagogue in Halle, Germany, and two shisha bars in Hanau, Germany. Two of these mass shootings
specifically targeted Muslims, in Hanau and Christchurch, but all were directed against immigrants or
Jews who were seen as abetting non-white immigration. Anders Breivik, who in 2012 murdered dozens
of children in Norway because he believed they would grow up to become adult supporters of Muslim
immigrants to the country, actively promoted his ideas on Facebook before the attack.63
57 Andreas Önnerfors, “‘The Great Replacement’ - Decoding the Christchurch Terrorist Manifesto,” Centre for the Analysis
of the Radical Right, March 18, 2019.
58 Rita Jabri-Markwell, “The Online Dehumanization.”
59 Heidi Beirich and Wendy Via, International White Nationalist Movement Spreading on Twitter and YouTube, Global
Project Against Hate and Extremism, July 2020.
60 Al Jazeera, “Facebook pulls the plug on far-right Generation Identity,” Al Jazeera, June 22, 2018.
61 Alexander Durie, “At the Heart of Hate: Inside France’s Identitarian Movement,” Are We Europe, 2018.
62 Heidi Beirich and Wendy Via, International White Nationalist.
63 Camila Ragfors, “Norway attacks: Breivik was my friend on Facebook. I’ve seen what fed his hatred,” The Guardian, July 24, 2011.
complicit 11Muslim users of the platform
By refusing to take anti-Muslim material on its platform seriously, Facebook is in effect poisoning its Muslim
users, and its users in general. The nine countries covered in this report have a total of 566 million Facebook
users, which make up about 20 percent of their customers worldwide.64 Furthermore, the top three markets
for Facebook users are India, the United States, and Indonesia, which is a Muslim-majority country.65 Muslims
in India are an astonishing 200 million66 and in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population
in the world, are 225 million.67 Of Facebook’s top 20 markets by country, six are Muslim-majority countries:
Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, and Nigeria.68 Two of Facebook’s top 20 markets—India and
Myanmar—have been the site of massacres of Muslims orchestrated on Facebook.
Facebook’s ongoing refusal to enforce its policies and protect Muslims is occurring as Facebook usage
rapidly grows in Muslim-majority markets. In 2019, according to data compiled by the University of
Oregon,69 more than seven out of 10 citizens in six Muslim-majority countries use Facebook and WhatsApp:
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA), Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. And the use of
these networks far outpaced the use of other social channels. As one example, Facebook had 187 million
active users in the Middle East (comprised of mostly Muslim-majority countries) in 2019. The University
of Oregon’s data also showed that half of young people say they get their daily news on Facebook instead
of newspapers, TV, or even online news portals.
All of these people, Muslim and non-Muslim, are being assaulted by the anti-Muslim, bigoted content
that Facebook refuses to address. Facebook must act now and end anti-Muslim hate on the platform, no
matter who, or what entity, is proliferating the hate. The only reason to allow dangerous hate content
from anyone to stay up, and especially from political figures with reach and influence, is because it's
profitable.70
A girl wails as the
Modi government
strips Kashmiri
Muslims of
their rights and
Facebook takes
away their ability
to use WhatsApp
to communicate.
Photo: Firdous
Qadri
64 This is a rough estimate based on Facebook penetration in a country and the share of the population in that country
that is Muslim. There is no data available on how many Muslim users of Facebook exist in the countries where the company
operates.
65 Statista, “Leading countries based on Facebook audience size as of July 2020.”
66 Kunal Purohit, “The Islamophobic roots of population control efforts in India,” Al Jazeera, Aug. 9, 2019.
67 Masrur Jamaluddin, Sandi Sidhu and Helen Regan, “Indonesia has the world’s biggest Muslim population. It just banned holiday
travel over Ramadan,” CNN, Apr. 24, 2020.
68 Statista, “Leading countries.”
69 Damian Radcliffe and Hadil Abuhmaid, Social Media in the Middle East: 2019 In Review, The University of Oregon School of
Journalism and Communication, Jan. 2020.
70 Ernesto Verdeja and Bettina Spencer, “The Short Fuse: Autocrats, Hate Speech and Political Violence,” Just Security, July 22, 2020.
complicit 12Country Summaries:
Anti-Muslim Organizing and
Violence on Facebook
Unfortunately, there is little public awareness regarding Facebook’s role as a chief driver of anti-Muslim
hate and violence throughout the world. Even more disturbing, the company chose repeatedly over
years not to act in the face of overwhelming evidence that material posted to Facebook was likely to end
in violence. The following summary describes Facebook’s role in the deaths of thousands of Muslims in
multiple countries. These examples not only illustrate Facebook’s complicity but also demonstrate how
profoundly hate content can impact people’s lives and cause violence offline.
What’s documented here is illustrative of the problem with anti-Muslim hate on the platform, but
likely represents just the tip of the iceberg, and is by no means exhaustive, as information about
Facebook’s role in dozens of countries and/or anti-Muslim incidents remains patchy, or unexamined,
or nonexistent. Given the widespread nature of anti-Muslim hate on the platform, it is very likely that
millions of Muslims around the world have been impacted negatively, jeopardizing their safety and
their freedom, by Facebook’s failure to act on anti-Muslim hate speech.
Facebook, and all of us, cannot forget that, every day, Muslims across the world are the targets
of bigotry and hate crimes while simply going about their lives. And that anti-Muslim rhetoric and
organizing that thrives online inspires and enables this abuse. These country reports are tragic,
cautionary tales of how easily everyday hate speech turns into violence and murder. And how easily
Facebook’s platform can be used to inspire and organize mass violence and genocide.
Sweden
Hungary
Germany
China
United States
Myanmar
India
Sri Lanka New Zealand
complicit 13China
Facebook does not even operate in China, but the Chinese government still uses the platform to
amplify anti-Muslim and specifically anti-Uighur sentiment.71 More than a million Muslim Uighurs
have been imprisoned and brutalized by the Chinese government in concentration camps across the
Xinjiang province.72 The Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities have been separated from their
families, forced to labor for their captors, beaten, tortured, and raped.73
In 2019, there were reports that “Chinese state-owned media is running ads on Facebook seemingly
designed to cast doubt on human rights violations” against the Uighurs.74 There were three ads —
two active and one inactive — within Facebook’s ad library describing alleged successes of happy
detainees in the camps and falsely claiming that the detention centers do not interfere with religious
beliefs and practices. Two of the ads were targeted to American and other countries’ audiences.
The paid ads aimed to convince Westerners that the camps in Xinjiang are not sites of human rights
abuses, contrary to the findings of several governments, human rights organizations, experts on
China, the U.N., and other international bodies.75
More than a million
Muslim Uighurs
have been detained
and brutalized
by the Chinese
government in
concentration camps
across the Xinjiang
province.
Photo: Azamat
Imanaliev
71 Alexandra Ma, “Mysterious automated calls, vanished relatives, and sinister Facebook comments: How China
intimidates Uighurs who don’t even live in the country,” Business Insider, Dec. 9, 2019.
72 Jen Kirby, “Concentration camps and forced labor: China’s repression of the Uighurs, explained,” Vox, Sept. 25, 2020.
73 Ellen Ioanes, “Rape, medical experiments, and forced abortions: One woman describes horrors of Xinjiang
concentration camps,” Business Insider, Oct. 22, 2019.
74 Ryan Mac, “These New Facebook Ads From Chinese State Media Want You To Believe Xinjiang’s Muslim Internment
Camps Are Just Great,” BuzzFeed, Aug. 20, 2019.
75 Sigal Samuel, “China paid Facebook and Twitter to help spread anti-Muslim propaganda,” Vox, Aug. 22, 2019.
complicit 14The Guardian published
drone footage of
what is believed to be
showing police leading
hundreds of blindfolded
and shackled Muslim
Uighurs during a transfer
of inmates in Xinjiang.
Photo: Screenshot from
The Guardian
On Facebook, the state-controlled tabloid Global Times posted a
sponsored video titled, “Xinjiang center trainees graduate with
hope for future.”76 It purports to show former detainees baking Facebook
bread, as an example of the “vocational skills” Uighurs supposedly
learn in the camps. Additional ads were posted to Twitter. was enabling
After the ads were reported to Twitter, the company removed
China to use
them immediately.77 Given the same information, Facebook, the platform
in stark contrast, decided to keep accepting such ads and said to cover up
they would take a “close look at ads that have been raised to
us to determine if they violate our policies.”78 Instead of simply widespread
refusing paid ads from Chinese state-controlled media, Facebook human rights
chose to passively rely on outside experts to flag problematic
posts, which it may or may not then remove, at a pace that may abuses and
or may not be quick enough to avert harm. In effect, Facebook violence in
was enabling China to use the platform to cover up widespread
human rights abuses and violence in Xinjiang. Xinjiang.
76 Ryan Mac, “These New Facebook Ads.”
77 Ryan Gallagher, “Twitter Helped Chinese Government Promote Disinformation on Repression of Uighurs,” The Intercept,
Aug. 19, 2019.
78 Sigal Samuel, “China paid.”
complicit 15Germany
Sparked by online rumors that a man was killed defending a woman from rape by a Muslim refugee, riots
targeting Muslim refugees and immigrants broke out in August of 2018, starting in the state of Saxony.79
The Facebook account of the municipal political party,80 Pro-Chemnitz,81 pushed the misinformation and
organized the protest that ended in mob violence. In calling for the protest, it claimed the victim in the
rumored stabbing was “a brave helper who lost his life trying to protect a woman.”82
Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested the violence was a threat to Germany’s post-war constitution,
saying, “We have video footage of the fact that there was [hunting people down], there were riots,
there was hatred on the streets, and that has nothing to do with our constitutional state.”83
A woman holds a sign that
says “Islam does not belong in
Germany.” Photo: Foto Berlin
79 Deutsche Welle, “German state official: Fake news fueled Chemnitz riots,” Deutsche Welle, Aug. 29, 2018.
80 Deutsche Welle, “German state official.”
81 Katy Dartford and Ayman Oghanna, “Chemnitz: How the East German city became known as a hotbed for extremism,”
Euronews, March 23, 2020.
82 J. Lester Feder and Pascal Anselmi, “The Real Story Behind The Anti-Immigrant Riots Rocking Germany
BuzzFeed, Aug. 31, 2018.
83 Der Spiegel, “Es darf auf keinem Platz und keiner Straße zu solchen Ausschreitungen kommen,” Der Spiegel, Aug. 28, 2018.
complicit 16In another incident, a teenaged Syrian refugee, Anas Modamani,
took a selfie with Chancellor Angela Merkel that he posted
on Facebook.84 After terrorist attacks in Brussels and Berlin in
2016, Modamani’s selfie began appearing on Facebook, this
time doctored to falsely label him as one of the perpetrators of
the attacks.85 Afraid of being recognized, Modamani was afraid
to leave his home. Chan-jo Jun, a lawyer, brought a landmark
lawsuit against Facebook on behalf of Modamani for being
Anti-Muslim
smeared online.86 His litigation was unsuccessful, but it helped and anti-refugee
lead87 Germany to pass one of the world’s most aggressive laws
targeting online hate speech,88 the so-called NetzDG law.89
sentiment is
widespread
But the damage was already done. The rumors helped support
the growth of the anti-Muslim Alternative for Germany party,
among sectors
which would eventually be elected to seats in several German of the German
state parliaments.90 The AfD now has over 500,000 followers
on Facebook.91 Research in 2018 by academics at the University
population.
of Warwick specifically showed that thousands of hate-filled In 2019, there
Facebook posts were linked to an increase in racially-motivated
attacks on refugees in Germany, who are predominantly Muslim.92
were more than
The research specifically cited material from the AfD as fueling 800 attacks
this awful trend. Now, anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment
is widespread among sectors of the German population. In 2019,
on Muslims in
there were more than 800 attacks on Muslims in Germany.93 Germany.
84 Melissa Eddy, “How a Refugee’s Selfie with Merkel Led to a Facebook Lawsuit,” The New York Times, Feb. 6, 2017.
85 BBC, “Syrian migrant launches Facebook ‘fake news’ legal fight,” BBC, Jan. 12, 2017.
86 Linda Kinstler, “Can Germany Fix Facebook?” The Atlantic, Nov. 2, 2017.
87 Patrick Evans, “Will Germany’s new law kill free speech online?” BBC, Sept. 18, 2017.
88 Deutsche Welle, “Germany implements new internet hate speech crackdown,” Deutsche Welle, Jan. 1, 2016.
89 Geoffrey Smith, “Germany’s New Law Is a Milestone for Social Media Regulation in Europe,” Fortune, June 30, 2017.
90 Rafaela Dancygier, “The anti-Muslim AfD just scored big in Germany’s election. What does this mean for German
Muslims?” The Washington Post, Sept. 25, 2017.
91 AfD Facebook page.
92 Samuel Stolton, “German Facebook use linked to refugee violence as AfD boost online presence,”
Euractiv, Aug. 23, 2018.
93 Deutsche Welle, “Over 800 attacks on Muslims reported in Germany in 2019,” Deutsche Welle, March 28, 2020.
complicit 17Hungary
Hungary has one of the most anti-Muslim governments in Europe.
During the European refugee crisis, which began in 2015, Prime
Minisiter Orbán and his government refused to allow refugees
fleeing the Middle East into his country and specifically said
in 2018 that the term “refugees” is a misnomer and that those
coming to Europe were “Muslim invaders.”94 For Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán, Muslims cannot be a part of Europe95 and Muslims
should be kept out of Europe to “keep Europe Christian.”96 Orbán’s
Facebook page,97 where he pushes his views, has more than a
million followers. If we let them
in and they are
There is little information on Facebook usage to spread hate in
Hungary, but one incident is instructive. In March 2018, Facebook going to live
reversed a decision to remove an anti-immigrant video targeting in our towns,
Muslims posted by János Lázár,98 then chief of staff to Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (Lazar was called a racist by the U.N. the result
human rights chief in 201899). The video featured Lazar saying, “If will be crime,
we let them in and they are going to live in our towns, the result
will be crime, poverty, dirt, and impossible conditions in our cities.” poverty, dirt,
Lazar accused Facebook of censorship after the social network and impossible
removed his post. Facebook, in reposting the racist video, said that
it was making an exception to its ban on hate speech: “Exceptions conditions in
are sometimes made if content is newsworthy, significant or our cities.
important to the public interest,” Facebook said.
János Lázár
The anti-refugee and anti-Muslim sentiment is so severe in Hungary Former chief of staff
that even those who work at organizations devoted to helping these to Hungarian Prime
populations have been giving up.100 Hungary’s Muslim population Minister Viktor Orbán
has faced beatings, vigilante attacks, and abuse.101
94 Emily Schultheis, “Viktor Orbán: Hungary doesn’t want ‘Muslim invaders,’” Politico, Jan. 8, 2018.
95 HVG, “Orbán: “Az iszlám soha nem volt Európa része,” HVG, Oct. 16, 2015.
96 Robert Mackey, “Hungarian Leader Rebuked for Saying Muslim Migrants Must Be Blocked ‘to Keep Europe Christian,’” The New
York Times, Sept. 3, 2015.
97 Viktor Orbán Facebook page.
98 Reuters Staff, “UPDATE 1-Facebook removes, then restores anti-immigrant video in Hungary,” Reuters, March 7, 2018.
99 VOA News, “Facebook Removes, Then Restores Anti-Immigrant Video in Hungary,” VOA News, March 7, 2018.
100 Joe Wallen, “‘Hungary is the worst’: Refugees become punch bag under PM Viktor Orbán,” The Independent, July 18,
2018.
101 Paul Peachy, “Hungary’s Muslims fear fallout from anti-Islam rhetoric,” The National, March 10, 2018.
complicit 18India
The situation is so dire regarding the anti-Muslim bias of Facebook India that the company’s senior
executives were summoned before a parliamentary committee for a closed door hearing on September
2, 2020. The committee hearing followed allegations that the company’s top policy official in India, Ankhi
Das,102 had prevented the removal of hate speech and anti-Muslim posts by ruling party Bharatiya Janata
(BJP) politicians103 in order to protect and promote the Hindu nationalist party and its Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, who have advanced anti-Muslim policies.104
Ties between the company and the BJP are deep. Both Zuckerberg105 and Sandberg106 have met personally
with Modi, who is the most popular world leader on Facebook.107 Before becoming prime minister,
Zuckerberg even introduced his parents to Modi,108 a strange choice considering Modi’s horrific track
record of stoking violence against Muslims. In February 2002, while head of the Gujarat government,
Modi allegedly encouraged massive anti-Muslim riots.109 As the state was overcome with violence and
over a thousand Muslims were murdered, leaders of the BJP and its even more nationalist ally, the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad, gave speeches provoking Hindus to teach Muslims a lesson.110 Modi himself gave an
incendiary speech, mocking riot victims and calling relief camps for Muslims “child-producing factories.”111
The intensity and brutality of the violence unleashed against Muslims in 2002 led the Supreme Court of
India to describe the Modi government in Gujarat as, “Modern day Neros who looked the other way while
young women and children were burnt alive.”112
Modern day Neros who looked
the other way while young women
and children were burnt alive.
Supreme Court of India
About Modi government in Gujarat
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Mark Zuckerberg.
102 Sanskriti Tiwari, “Who is Ankhi Das and What’s the Controversy Surrounding Her?” SheThePeople.tv, Aug. 31, 2020.
103 Newley Purnell and Rajesh Roy, “Facebook Faces Hate-Speech Questioning by Indian Lawmakers After Journal Article,” The Wall
Street Journal, Aug. 18, 2020.
104 Samanth Subramanian, “How Hindu Supremacists are Tearing India Apart,” The Guardian, Feb. 2, 2020.
105 Mehdi Hasan, “Dear Mark Zuckerberg.”
106 New Delhi Bureau, “Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg meets PM Modi,” The Hindu Business Line, July 3, 2014.
107 Saumya Tewari, “Narendra Modi the most popular world leader on Facebook: Study,” Live Mint, April 23, 2020.
108 Mehdi Hasan, “Dear Mark Zuckerberg.”
109 Sanjoy Majumder, “Narendra Modi ‘allowed’ Gujarat 2002 anti-Muslim riots,” BBC, April 22, 2011.
110 Rana Ayyub, “Narendra Modi Looks the Other Way as New Delhi Burns,” Time, Feb. 28, 2020.
111 Narendra Modi, “Should We Run Relief Camps? Open Child Producing Centres?,’” Outlook Magazine, Sept. 30, 2002.
112 Rana Ayyub, “Narendra Modi Looks.”
complicit 19Prime Minister
Modi is
celebrated by a
Hindu nationalist
party which
promotes anti-
Muslim hate
online.
The problems go right to the top in Facebook’s India operations. Das is herself implicated in spreading
anti-Muslim bigotry.113 She shared a post on her own Facebook page which referred to Muslims as a
“degenerate community” for whom “nothing except purity of religion and implementation of Shariah
matter,” which Das said “spoke to me... as it should to [the] rest of India”114 (After press reports that
led to mass outrage, Das weakly apologized referencing her commitment to feminism, using an anti-
Muslim trope regarding Muslims and sexism.115) The controversy was spotlighted in an August report
that said Facebook India employees repeatedly attempted to remove content and label BJP leaders
as dangerous individuals, and Das overruled their recommendations in order to protect her personal
political interests.116 One such post that Das overruled was by Anantkumar Hegde, a BJP member of
parliament, who alleged that Muslims were spreading coronavirus in the country as part of an anti-
Muslim conspiracy called “Corona Jihad.”117
Das’ abuse of her authority in support of her political allies has led to the loss of lives. In February 2020,
former BJP lawmaker Kapil Mishra gave a speech threatening activists protesting the BJP’s anti-Muslim
citizenship law in Delhi, the country’s capital, which makes citizenship difficult for Muslims.118 This was a post
flagged to Das but allowed to stay up.119 Mishra said his supporters would use force to stop the protests.120
Hours after the video was posted on Facebook, rioting broke out in the city that led to dozens of deaths,121
most of them Muslims. Some of this violence was arranged on Facebook’s subsidiary, WhatsApp, which has
repeatedly been the source of mob violence targeting Muslims in India.122
113 Al Jazeera, “Facebook executive who shared anti-Muslim post apologises: Report,” Al Jazeera, Aug. 27, 2020.
114 Al Jazeera, “Facebook executive.”
115 Pranav Dixit, “A Facebook Executive Who Shared An Anti-Muslim Post Has Apologized To Employees,” BuzzFeed, Aug.
24, 2020.
116 Jeff Horwitz and Newley Purnell, “Facebook Executive Supported India’s Modi, Disparaged Opposition in Internal
Messages,” The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 30, 2020.
117 Al Jazeera, “Facebook ignored hate speech by India’s BJP politicians: Report,” Al Jazeera, Aug. 15, 2020.
118 Soumya Shankar, “India’s Citizenship Law, In Tandem with National Registry, Could Make BJP’s Discriminatory Targeting
of Muslims Easier,” The Intercept, Jan. 30, 2020.
119 Al Jazeera, “Facebook Ignored.”
120 Newley Purnell and Jeff Horwitz, “Facebook’s Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics,” The Wall Street Journal,
Aug. 14, 2020.
121 Al Jazeera, “Facebook ignored.”
122 Anand Mohan J, “Delhi riot chargesheet details how fake messages were weaponised by mob,” The Indian Express,
Oct. 10, 2020.
complicit 20Das’ inability to carry out her responsibilities in an objective
manner manifests itself in many different situations. When T.
Raja Singh, another member of the BJP, called for the slaughter
of Rohingya Muslim refugees, threatened to demolish mosques,
and labeled Indian Muslim citizens as traitors, Facebook’s online
security staff determined his account should be banned for not
only violating its community standards, but also for falling under
the category of “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations.”123
Das stepped in to protect Singh from punitive action, because Punishing
“punishing violations by politicians from Mr. Modi’s party would violations by
damage the company’s business prospects in the country,”
according to Facebook employees.124 Outrage in response to politicians from
these disclosures forced Facebook to finally ban Singh from the Mr. Modi’s
platform in early September 2020.125 Lynchings spurred by bigoted
and propagandistic WhatsApp posts led the company to consider party would
banning mass messaging on the system.126 damage the
India is Facebook’s largest and most lucrative market with nearly company’s
350 million users and another 400 million on WhatsApp.127 The BJP, business
which has more than 16 million followers on its page, is Facebook
India’s biggest advertising spender in recent months.128 Facebook prospects in
has multiple commercial ties with the Indian government, including the country.
Facebook employees
partnerships with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Ministry of
Women, and the Board of Education.129 Facebook employees
123 C.J. Werleman, “How Facebook threatens vulnerable Muslim communities,” Middle East Eye, Aug. 30, 2020.
124 Jeff Horwitz and Newley Purnell, “Facebook Staff Demand Policy Changes on India Hate Speech,” The Wall Street
Journal, Aug. 21, 2020.
125 The New Arab, “Facebook bans India ruling party politician over anti-Muslim hate speech,” The New Arab, Sept. 3, 2020.
126 Shannon Liao, “WhatsApp tests limiting message forwarding after violent lynchings in India,” The Verge, July 20, 2018.
127 Helen Ellis-Pederson, “Facebook Faces Grilling.”
128 Outlook Web Bureau, “BJP again tops the political ad spend on Facebook In India,” Outlook, Aug. 27, 2020.
129 Helen Ellis-Pederson, “Facebook Faces Grilling.”
complicit 21There are many more connections between anti-Muslim content on Facebook and violence in India.
In May 2020, a BJP member of parliament in West Bengal, Arjun Singh, posted an image on Facebook
that he wrongly claimed was a depiction of a Hindu who had been brutalized by Muslim mobs.130 It
was captioned: “How long will the blood of Hindus flow on in Bengal…we will not stay quiet if they
[Muslims] attack ordinary people.” Four hours later, an angry mob of about 100 Hindus descended on
a town in West Bengal and a Muslim shrine was vandalized.131 Facebook failed to remove the posts
until after the company experienced backlash as a result of the violent attacks, which local Muslims
alleged had been incited by Singh’s post. Overall, dozens of Muslims have been lynched since 2012
by vigilantes, with many of the incidents triggered by fake news regarding cow slaughter or smuggling
shared on WhatsApp.132
New Delhi riots
Facebook appeared to play a pivotal role in the February 2020 New Delhi riots in which more than
50 people died and thousands of homes and several mosques were destroyed. While both Hindus
and Muslims were affected in the riots, Muslims were targeted in far greater numbers by mobs of
young men, many of whom had traveled into the city to harass Muslims after seeing fake news shared
widely on Facebook that Muslim religious leaders were calling for Hindus to be kicked out of Delhi.133
One post by a BJP member who is also a member of the right-wing militant Hindu organization
Bajrang Dal, prompted hundreds to comment that they and their Hindu “brothers” would join the
fight to defend Delhi from the Muslims.134 And two days before the anti-Muslim riots began in Delhi, a
member of Modi’s cabinet said Muslims should have been sent out of India to Pakistan in 1947 during
the partition of India.135 Ultimately, the Delhi State Assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee said
it had prima facie found Facebook guilty of aggravating the Delhi riots, and posited that it should be
investigated for every riot since 2014.136
During the riots, Facebook was also used by members of the mobs to glorify their violence. In early
February, a Bajrang Dal activist posted a video claiming to have “killed a Mulle [derogatory term
for Muslims]” and the next day wrote in a public Facebook post that he had just sent a “jihadi to
heaven.”137 It took about three days for his Facebook account to be deactivated. In the wake of the
violence, hundreds of Muslim families fled New Delhi.138
130 Helen Ellis-Pederson, “Facebook Faces Grilling.”
131 Helen Ellis-Pederson, “Facebook Faces Grilling.”
132 Al Jazeera, “Indian MPs Grill Facebook Over Hate Speech, Allegations of Bias,” Al Jazeera, Sept. 3, 2020.
133 Human Rights Watch, “Shoot the Traitors“ Discrimination Against Muslims under India’s New Citizenship Policy,”
Human Rights Watch, April 9, 2020.
134 Helen Ellis-Pederson, “Facebook Faces Grilling.”
135 Rana Ayyub, “Narendra Modi Looks.”
136 Aditya Chunduru, “Key Takeaways.”
137 Helen Ellis-Pederson, “Facebook Faces Grilling.”
138 Rana Ayyub, “Narendra Modi Looks.”
complicit 22You can also read
